EMarketResearchGroup - Incentiverewardcenter Documenting my experience from Step One...8 hours from completing my survey I have already recieved 3 phone calls from telemarketers, and about 14 spams in my email box. Delray Beach Florida

Geez, to me it seems like way too much trouble to go through for a $400 walk-man. Now, you have credit cards you really didn't want, vitamins and "enhancers" you don't need, and spam and telephone solicitors out the yang.

Would have been a lot easier to go to Best Buy and just plop down the $100-$400 for the iPod of your choice.

From all the comments I have read, it seems that their hook is they get all but one of your offers confirmed. Most people would eventually just forget about it instead of dealing with the hassle. So they get the money from all these companies who advertise their services, and save on shipping out the iPod.

Sure, they send some out, but only to those who are persistent enough to pester them until they do. Amazing how everyone who got their iPod said they had to fax over confirmation of that final offer.

Keep these scammers (yes, they are scammers) out of business. Support your local economy by buying from the businesses in town, not on the internet. After all, your taxes go to improve the place where you live.

I participated in an identical offer for a free Ipod sponsored by Online Reward Center. (another affiliate of TheUseful.com at the same address in Delray Beach, FL...just another name for the same company, I think.)

My experiences are identical to those above. I had to sign up for 8 offers, 7 of which were marked 'completed' in a reasonable amount of time. I also had trouble with the Orexis offer, which to this day remains the offer that refuses to be marked 'complete.'

Following the advice posted on this page, I submitted a letter with the invoice from my Orexis shipment to the address supplied on the www.onlinerewardcenter.com website. Less than a week after sending my letter, I received the same "...you are now qualified..." email that above users have received. I anticipate that the Ipod will soon be mailed. Right now, it is only a month after beginning the process.

I post this reply to provide information for participants in Onlinerewardcenter's offers: expect the same experiences as the above users have had with Incentiverewardcenter. If you diligently and professionally contact the company, I think that you can expect to receive your free gift in a reasonable amount of time.

David
Evanston, Illinois
U.S.A.

Received the iPod today, and believe it or not, it's a 60GB Photo iPod - brand new in a sealed iPod box! I haven't actually testing the thing yet, but it seems to work...the light comes on and I can scroll through the menus.

The question is - "Is it worth the headache?" - I'm still assessing that question. At the moment, I'm thinking "yes". If I would have gotten the standard 40 GB non-photo version, I might have a different answer.

Another nice-ity that caught me off-guard, is that they emailed me notification that they shipped the iPod (less than 2 weeks ago) - which included a UPS tracking number, and tracking link through iShip.com, which came in very useful.

My advice to anyone thinking about doing this - save all of your emails, paper receipts, credit card statements, ANYTHING you can that proves you've completed the incentive offers (even screen shots of confirmations) - have patience, you most likely will not get your gift in 3 months like they claim. Stay on em - email and call when you experience a legitimate problem. Be prepared to mail and/or fax in proof.

I hope this log has been beneficial and encouraging to folks that may be experiencing frustratio. I have decided not to declare "RIP-OFF".

Good luck to all!

My wife just informed me that my iPod has been delivered.

The email the original poster recieved is identical to the one that I received a few weeks ago. It really sounds like this company is trying to make things right. I have posted my trials on my website but will re-iterate them here:

--be patient
--be thorough
--keep all proof of completion because more than likely you'll have to fax this in

If you want to read my whole experience/suggestion you can go to:
http://www.lifewithryan.com/blog.php but I don't know if that sort of thing is allowed to be posted on this forum so if it needs to be removed, please remove it but post the rest of the info because i want people to know this works if they've got the patience.

My wife just informed me that my iPod has been delivered.

The email the original poster recieved is identical to the one that I received a few weeks ago. It really sounds like this company is trying to make things right. I have posted my trials on my website but will re-iterate them here:

--be patient
--be thorough
--keep all proof of completion because more than likely you'll have to fax this in

If you want to read my whole experience/suggestion you can go to:
http://www.lifewithryan.com/blog.php but I don't know if that sort of thing is allowed to be posted on this forum so if it needs to be removed, please remove it but post the rest of the info because i want people to know this works if they've got the patience.

My wife just informed me that my iPod has been delivered.

The email the original poster recieved is identical to the one that I received a few weeks ago. It really sounds like this company is trying to make things right. I have posted my trials on my website but will re-iterate them here:

--be patient
--be thorough
--keep all proof of completion because more than likely you'll have to fax this in

If you want to read my whole experience/suggestion you can go to:
http://www.lifewithryan.com/blog.php but I don't know if that sort of thing is allowed to be posted on this forum so if it needs to be removed, please remove it but post the rest of the info because i want people to know this works if they've got the patience.

First off, I should say that now it's been over 3 months since I started the offer. So when I go online to look at the status, the web site says "Current Status: Redemption Requirements Not Met"....and the "status table" is gone.

But, at the bottom of this page is a phone number to call (long distance of course). So I called it yesterday, and yes, I actually talked with someone...she was a little edgy - prolly from people screaming at her all day - but she was able to guide me through what I needed to do.

And so I began to tell her that I did fulfill the Discover card offer - which was the only offer at this point, that was incomplete (according to the Reward Center). I proceded to tell her that Discover DOES NOT send confirmation emails to approved applicants. So she instructed me to fax a copy of my last Discover statement to her. So I made a Xerox copy of my statement, blacked out my account numbers (which she said was fine), typed up a coversheet that included a ticket number that she assigned me, an ATTENTION to her name in the header, and a brief overview of the problem and our phone conversation. Then I faxed that over to them, along with my Discover statement this morning.

It's now 1:00, and I did receive a response in my email. And here is what is says:


"Thank you for sending us your confirmation email, you are now qualified
for a Apple(r) iPod 40 GB. The Security Verification Process has now
been waived, so you will not have to mail us your Gift Redemption
Voucher. Also, a Shipping Request has now been issued.

Please allow 3-4 weeks for the fulfillment center to assemble, package,
and ship a gift after the Shipping Request has been sent.

We appreciate your patience. Your gift should arrive soon.

Please do not reply to this email as the account this is sent from is
not monitored for incoming mail and you will not receive a reply.
Please use the contact form provided at our website.

Thank you,
Support"


So supposedly, I will be getting my free iPod soon! I am still going to remain cynical until I actually have a brand new, working, 4th generation iPod in my hands.

I'll keep ya posted.

Alright!...I'm very happy for the people who have replied to my report with their success. However, I am still wageing battle with this company!

After emailing them my umteenth complaint that my statuses should all be marked COMPLETE, they replied to me saying "Prove it!" (basically)...so I Xeroxed my confirmation emails from 2 out of 3 companies that hadn't yet marked me as complete....however, Discover Card DOES NOT send confirmation emails to approved applicants!!! So I send them the "Thank you" email that Discover sent me for applying for the card, and they rejected that as proof.

I have spent the last 45 minutes talking with Discover, and they insist that they DO NOT send out confirmation emails of this nature.

What is a guy to do?? "I need a gun and lots of ammo!!!"

I sat on 5 out of six offers for quite some time and gave some leeway. However, I decided to call the number on the website and actually got a person right away.

I told her that I'd had all 6 offers completed for quite some time and that it hadn't updated to show 6 out of 6.

She asked if I could prove my last offer was completed by faxing the confirmation email from Earthlink, (that was my last offer..). I did so and this morning I recieved an an email saying that the Request for Shipment has been requested and it should take 4-5 weeks for delivery.

I will keep everyone posted, but I just want to say that is sounds like these folks are genuinely trying to make the effort to accomodate, but it seems there are some glitches in the system along the way.

I will update this entry again when and if there are any more problems or when the ipod actually shows up. Hang in there, and if you start getting worried, just call. It may be an inconvenience, but at least you aren't spending $400 bucks. True you are spending time, but I guarantee I haven't wasted $400 dollars in time following up.

A friend turned me on to this, he got his IPOD with no fuss, no contacting anyone etc. Took him probably about 3 weeks total time for offers, then however long it takes to ship the IPOD.

I have been working on it since 4-11, I have 4 of 6 offers completed and am currently waiting on th Earthlink one to appear as completed. I did a bad thing and did NOT research this company thoroughly before starting this. I recommend to anyone thinking about it, to do your research first.

Now having done research, I am currently in the middle of it all and am sticking with it, but in an effort to head a few of these issues off at the pass, I will begin my "hunting" on May 11th. (Their website has a phone number and that number states that you need to wait 4 weeks before making your phone based inquiries.

I was just curious what phone numbers have people tried?? Somebody talked to someone named "Will" and I'd be curious what number was used to reach this person. If anyone has this number please post it here as I am sure it will help those that are further down the path than I am.

Finally, I'd recommend setting up a "spam" email account for this type of offer as you'll get tons and tons of email. HOWEVER, it should be noted that they warn you of this in their terms and conditions. If you want the iPod you have to play by their rules...so for me that means patience. I am confident that I can get this...I may wind up paying 30 bucks in Earthlink costs, but 30 bucks vs 300...not a bad deal.

Actually my total, if it works should be about 65 dollars in all.

Hello Jonathan in Oregon and everyone else who has tried to get a 40GB iPod from IncentiveRewardCenter.

I was in about the same situation as you and everyone else. I signed up for 6 offers at the beginning of February 2005 and 5 of them were marked as completed within 2 weeks. However, even though I also received Orexia (my 6th offer) from Urban Nutrition within a few days of ordering it, it never was updated as complete on the website. My email address was also dropped from their database, but it reappeared within 2 days. Must have been a glitch in their system.

I waited patiently for a couple more weeks, then I emailed them a couple times. Like others have said, don't bother emailing them because you will never get a response. After receiving no response, I started researching my options. That's when I found Ripoffreport.com and started reading all the complaints about IncentiveRewardCenter. The complaints pretty much all said the same thing that I was experiencing and what people were doing about it, including calling their phone number and filing reports with the attorney general's office and better business bureau.

I called them, and Will responded within a day. He told me I needed to wait a few weeks longer for the Orexia offer to complete. It never did, so I called again and Will responded in 2 days. He asked me to fax him proof of completing the Orexia offer and I did.

I watched the status of the Orexia offer for 2 more weeks, hoping it would change to completed once they reviewed my fax. But guess what -- It never did. So I left another message for Will to return my call, but he never did. Instead, I got an email message saying that a package had been shipped to my address from Florida and it gave me a tracking number. I looked up the tracking number, and it was a 3 pound package coming from Gift Redemption company. Sounds like it could be an iPod. A day after receiving the email, Will called me, appologized for taking so long, and told me they shipped my iPod and that I will be receiving it soon. Unbelievable to say the least!

I received the iPod, and to my astonishment, it wasn't the 40GB iPod that the offer promised. During the time I was completing the offer, Apple stopped making the 40GB iPod. Instead, when I opened the box, it was a brand new 40GB iPod Photo with a bunch of accessories that only come with the iPod Photo. How SWEET is That????

If I were to do all of it over again, I would probably just go and buy an iPod with my own money. The pain of dealing with IncentiveRewardCenter isn't really worth it when you consider the time you waste to send email, make phone calls, do research, and just get generally frustrated. However, if you do want to participate or you are already in the middle of it, just call them once in awhile and let them know you are still there and expect them to come through on their end of the deal. Be professional. You will get return calls and a better response from them. I was tempted to cuss at them and get nasty several times, but it wouldn't have helped. And don't contact the attorney general of better business bureau. That's ridiculous. These people work slow and drag the process out because that is their job. They get the money in from the sponsors and hold on to it as long as possible before they have to spend it to buy you an iPod. It's called managing cash flow. You may not like it, but if you want a free iPod, you're going to have to put up with it.

So I got my iPod and I'm happy. But it was a lot of work. I wish someone else out of all the complaints and reports I read would have filed a comment like mine. It would have made me more confident that the process will work if you give it time, be patient, and make a few phone calls.

By the way, when I go into their web page to this date 3 weeks after I have received by iPod, my Orexia offer is still not complete. I wonder if they will still complete it and send me another iPod? LOL!

Good luck to all of you. Just call them once a week.

I have officially completed all of my offers, and have officially waited long enough for Incentiverewardcenter to update my status on all 6 of the offers that I have completed - and three of still haven't been updated.

I have contacted them three times about this already, and they always send the standard response:


"Dear Jonathan

Thank you for your inquiry,

Please click on the following link to check your gift status, including
what is required to receive your free gift(s)."

I am getting angry!!!

Well, here we are - one month and one day later. And still no changes have been made to my status. Since my last report, I have sent them another email asking whatup....and they insist on me waiting for an entire 8 weeks - and to throw salt in the wound they tell me I should expect to wait another 4 to 8 weeks to receive my iPod. But Im sure it'll be 4 - 8 weeks after deliberating with them after not seeing my status change for 8 weeks (which is in 2 weeks). Confused yet? Me too!

Sorry for the delay! It took a few days for them to activate my login (once again) - but it's working again.

Unfortunately, UrbanNutrition (MyDailyDose and Orexis) still hasn't updated my status. It's been over a month since they charged my credit card.

It's been 2 weeks or so since I made charges to my other credit card, and they still haven't updated my status either (It pays to Discover, huh?).

I have sent IncentiveRewardsCenter an email asking them to check into this. I am thinking that it's possible the companies may have TRIED to update my status, but couldn't, since my profile was MIA for a while.

It's Sunday, Feb 13th, and when I try to login to the status page, I get the EMAIL NOT FOUND error. You think they're having system problems, or am I being skrewd?

I have submitted the following customer service email:

"I've been tracking my status ever since I completed my offers. But today, when I login, I get the EMAIL NOT FOUND page. What's going on?

This is the URL I am taken to: [private]

Please respond asap. Thank you.

Jonathan [private]"

Right now, I'm not feeling very fuzzy & warm!!

Still haven't heard back from Urban Nutrition about my Autopay cancelation for MyDailyDose and Orexis. I did, however, get my package of Orexis yesterday. Neither Orexis nor MyDailyDose has updated my status yet either. !

On another note, I recieved my other credit card today in the mail - so this makes 2. I went online last night to buy something with credit card #1, and this morning, I noticed they updated my status....altho, now I have 3 complete for that catagory - oh well.

I went online tonight to purchase something with credit card #2...I suspect they will follow through and update my status within the next couple of days - I'm not worried since they are a respectable credit card company.

So far, things are going pretty well with the exception of Urban Nutrition. I suspect I'll have to fax proof of purchase in to redeem my iPod. This Urban Nutrition company seems oblivious to everyone and everything except their greed...maybe they will prove me wrong...

Having a VERY BAD experience with Urban Nutrition (the makers of MyDailyDose and Orexis/Orexia). I have ordered their trial versions of MyDailyDose and Orexis as part of this iPod deal. I have received MyDailyDose in the mail, and not received the Orexis. The bad experience lies with their customer service. Apparently, the only way you can cancel out of their "autoship" (auto-deduct from your credit card) is to do it online. I've done this 6 times already, and have not received their promised email notification confirmations. I have called their phone number, and the only way you can reach a customer service rep (or ANYONE!) is to leave a message - and they clearly stipulate that they will not answer any "Autoship" cancellation messages.

My advice to anyone who might wonder: DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THESE PEOPLE!!! I am considering a seperate RIP OFF and BBB report for this company.

On another note, I did receive one of my credit cards yesterday...unfortunately, I have already completed 2 offers from it's catagory...

Oy!

It's Monday morning, and Real Rhapsody has updated my status to "complete". I figured a company that has a reputation to keep, wouldn't waste theirs or my time.

MyDailyDose, however, doesn't seem to care about their reputation. Not only hasn't my status been updated by them, but they haven't sent me email confirmations for the products they have me auto-payment enrolled in... GRRRR!!! I suppose I'm gonna have to call and complain! (I HATE when I have to do that!)

Still haven't heard a word from the credit card companies I applied for and still haven't received the libido enhancers from Orexia. Slackers!!

It's Monday morning, and Real Rhapsody has updated my status to "complete". I figured a company that has a reputation to keep, wouldn't waste theirs or my time.

MyDailyDose, however, doesn't seem to care about their reputation. Not only hasn't my status been updated by them, but they haven't sent me email confirmations for the products they have me auto-payment enrolled in... GRRRR!!! I suppose I'm gonna have to call and complain! (I HATE when I have to do that!)

Still haven't heard a word from the credit card companies I applied for and still haven't received the libido enhancers from Orexia. Slackers!!

It's Monday morning, and Real Rhapsody has updated my status to "complete". I figured a company that has a reputation to keep, wouldn't waste theirs or my time.

MyDailyDose, however, doesn't seem to care about their reputation. Not only hasn't my status been updated by them, but they haven't sent me email confirmations for the products they have me auto-payment enrolled in... GRRRR!!! I suppose I'm gonna have to call and complain! (I HATE when I have to do that!)

Still haven't heard a word from the credit card companies I applied for and still haven't received the libido enhancers from Orexia. Slackers!!

It's Monday morning, and Real Rhapsody has updated my status to "complete". I figured a company that has a reputation to keep, wouldn't waste theirs or my time.

MyDailyDose, however, doesn't seem to care about their reputation. Not only hasn't my status been updated by them, but they haven't sent me email confirmations for the products they have me auto-payment enrolled in... GRRRR!!! I suppose I'm gonna have to call and complain! (I HATE when I have to do that!)

Still haven't heard a word from the credit card companies I applied for and still haven't received the libido enhancers from Orexia. Slackers!!

Well, I received my order of MyDailyDose in the mail yesterday. But they still haven't updated my status yet.... It's been 8 days (and counting) since they charged my credit card.

I also enrolled in RealRhapsody music download service last night and burned 11 songs (at $.79 /per song) - my credit card was charged, and they haven't updated my service yet either (but perhaps they will soon).

Well, my credit card was charged yesterday for the Vitamins and the 'you know what' enhancers, but they have yet to update my status. Ya - I know it can take "up to 8 weeks", but c'mon!...get off that lazy a*s and just do it like the kind folks at BMG and 1800Flowers.com!

This is only day 4, and how many more days do I have to go??? Gee!

Received an email from CustomerService at Customer Incentive Promotions. I'm not sure if it's intentional, but it seem that they are either trying to entice me into taking another survey, or trick me into accepting a lesser offer - or both.

They make it sound like I've already qualified for this "gift". But according to their rules, I can claim ONLY ONE gift...and this latest offer is a Circuit City gift card for $250 - clearly not as valuable as a 40 GB iPod...

Hmmm....I wonder what would happen if I had 2 gifts to claim...would they cancel each other out, and make it to where I couldn't claim either gift?

As wise Yoda might put it: "Devious!...this offer seems..."

It's Monday morning - 2 days after completing my survey. Checked my Redemption Status on http://www.incentiverewardcenter.com. 1800Flowers.com has marked my status "Complete"...so that completes two of six.